Dancing
by a-heavyheart-tocarry
Summary: Mako isn't a dancer, but maybe Korra can change his mind. One-shot. Shameless Makorra.


**People on Tumblr demand Makorra, I write Makorra. It might be a bit OOC, but seeing as there have only been two episodes...**

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><p>How Bolin had talked them into <em>dancing<em>, Mako would never know.

Dancing was childish and silly and not at all Mako's style. Sure, he was pretty graceful out on the probending floor, if he did say so himself, but dancing… Well, he'd never been that good at it, the few times he'd experienced the act. He was awkward and fumbling and completely not sure of himself. And Mako hated not being sure of himself. And it didn't make matters better when he accidentally stepped on his partner's toes and started fumbling and murmuring self conscious apologies and why did it even matter because she would just end up on the arm of Bolin at the end of the night anyway. Mako's younger brother had always been a right sight better in the matters of girls and chivalry anyway. Mako was just here to win tournaments.

Needless to say, he hadn't been too pleased when he found out that he was being dragged along to a high-end dance club along with his brother and their new Avatar teammate.

It's not like this outfit is making things easier, he thought, tugging apprehensively at his scarf (no, he was not protective of the thing, thank you very much, it was just a… staple of his). Bolin had managed to get him in a nice shirt and pants, which Mako hadn't been too happy about. He liked things he could move in, being so used to probending uniforms and training outfits. Fancy clothes? Not his forte.

Apparently Bolin and Korra didn't have the same problem. Bolin was as lady-killing as ever, and Mako was pretty sure more than one male in the room had been paying a little more attention to the Avatar than usual when she showed up in that dress. (Of course, the Firebender in question hadn't been included in that group, nope, his ears hadn't gotten red and he hadn't choked when she asked how she looked at all. And it was ridiculous to think he'd been really grateful Bolin had answered that question because he'd been too busy contemplating that his slightly annoying, headstrong probending teammate actually looked great to respond.)

Mako huffed, crossing his arms. He'd secluded himself in a smoky corner of the room, away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd and the laughs and shrieks of women being dipped and the barks of men calling out jokes and taunts to each other. Music thrummed through the air, only slightly muffled by the chatter of the people in the club. A few men over by the bar were smoking some type of cigars, but smoke didn't bother Mako. He was just hoping the secluded space would give people the impression that he wanted to be left alone. Which he did. He just wanted to get through this night with as little stress and fewest annoyed women as possible.

Of course, that wasn't going to happen.

He almost groaned when he spotted Korra obviously heading in his direction, a grin on her lips and a few flyaway strands of her dark hair falling in her face. Nothing against Korra personally, but he really didn't want to be dragged into her and Bolin's shenanigans at the moment.

"Hey, grumpy." The girl's voice was a little breathless, but happy nonetheless. "Why the sulking?"

Mako sighed. "I'm not sulking. I'd just.. rather… not get involved in all the craziness," he explained, wrinkling his nose distastefully as he watched a rather tipsy-looking woman spill her drink on man's vest and erupt into giggles. Korra followed his line of sight and snorted.

"What, afraid of getting a little mussed up? Why don't you come out and dance? It won't kill you."

He shot her a glance. He knew her expression— knew the jutted out hip and the slightly cocked eyebrow, knew the little pleased smirk. She was challenging him.

Well, he'd never been one to back down from a challenge before.

"Fine. You wanna dance? I'll dance. Lead the way, O Great Avatar." He noticed, with a small smirk of his own, that surprise flickered across her expression for a moment. But it was gone quickly, replaced by a mock curtsy and her lithe, quick steps out into the middle of the dance floor. Part of Mako wanted to back out then— he'd just make a fool of himself— but that would give Korra the upper hand, and if he knew one thing he knew he would _not _let that happen.

So he followed her, weaving in between all the dancing and stumbling and giggling figures. He mock-bowed when he reached her, and he could tell she was hiding a grin. A fast, quick-paced song began playing, prompting more people onto the dance floor with whoops and hollers. At least people wouldn't be noticing how bad a dancer he was. Teasing from Bolin or his buddies was the last thing he needed. Especially when Korra had this over his head already.

Before he quite realized what she was doing, she had taken one of his hands in hers and placed the other on her waist, and he remembered _why_ he didn't dance in the first place. Shit, he would never hear the end of this. He kept his feet firmly planted on the ground until she rose an eyebrow at him. "C'mon. It's not that hard. It's like bending. Just go with it," she said, obviously sensing his hesitancy.

_Bending. Okay. Bending._ He repeated it in his head a few times as she took a few steps. Foward. Then back. He stepped on her toes. She winched. "Sorry," he murmured, but she just rolled her eyes. Of course. She was Korra. "Loosen up a bit. If I wanted to dance with a wooden board, I would've asked one."

Mako scowled at her, but she just grinned, angling her steps so he had to move faster. Adding in odd little jump-steps and moving with the beat of the music and she was spinning and maybe this wasn't too bad. It actually was like bending. Bending with music and no elements. Okay. He could buy that. And maybe this wasn't too bad, she was laughing when he spun her and pushing him to move quicker and he actually wasn't messing up and it was a dance, he was dancing…

And then, with one final flourish that ended up with Korra flush against him again and scattered applause from the dancers to the band, it was over.

"Not bad," grinned Korra, gracefully untangling herself from Mako's grip and playfully re-positioning his scarf.

"Not bad yourself," he replied with a slightly uncharacteristic smile back, and she laughed, and he tried not to feel disappointed when she sauntered off to go find Bolin, and told himself no, that wasn't irritation he felt when he saw her laughing with one of the men at the bar ten minutes later. Nor would he admit that he could still almost feel her hand in his, or that he kind of wished that song had gone on a little longer than it had.

Well, maybe dancing wasn't his forte, but he supposed it wasn't all bad.


End file.
